Categories
Investing Personal Finance

I just bought while the stock market is 7% down, was I wrong?

I got some dividends lately (though not a lot) which went to a cash account. Today I logged in to my account and the Philippine Stock Market/Index was down 7%. Hmmm, but I went ahead anyway and bought a stock selling only about half of what I believe is fair value (according to COLFinancial – let’s just say they’ve proven their valuations to be valuable to me). I will just post this and I’m logging off to sleep (it’s trading hours there but it’s evening where I’m based at)

Many will say
* I should have waited for a bottom
* I shouldn’t have bought in the first place
* I should have sold instead (take profits and go on vacation)
* I should have… shouldn’t have (or maybe you wouldn’t care what I do – possible as well)

If you are a fundamental + technical investor then maybe yes, should have waited for a bottom or technical indicators for a rebound. Or not buy (or in fact sell) if technical indicators really say it’s that bad.

But more than buy-sell I suggest you choose a strategy first and stick with it (unless you don’t really believe in it – then maybe that means you haven’t done enough work/reading to see if that strategy would fit you – in which case keep looking). Maybe I have a reason why I cannot check for technical indicators (automated or otherwise).

I definitely appreciate those making it simple to encourage more people to invest in the stock market (I believe in the value of public exchanges/market) but I highly encourage everyone to choose a strategy instead of just following an advice that might not be the best for your situation. You might get lucky but blindly following an advice is very risky for you.

I do not want to lose money, it is very important to me and my family. It probably is for you as well so if you are in the market, learn as much as you can. I did not (do not) gamble, I believe the stock is cheap and I just don’t have time (or facility to automate) at this time to spend time on watching indicators. That’s why. And I think the “why?” is a better question than “is it right or wrong?”.

My outlook for the Philippines is positive and if the news are right it has a very strong economy (definitely somewhere in the top of the list) so I intend to support it any way I can and encourage everyone to do so. And hopefully these dips are temporary.

So yes, I may be wrong (in the opinion of a lot of people) but one thing for sure – I’m gonna sleep soundly tonight – that one at least no one can argue I got right…

Categories
Personal Finance

one possible path towards financial freedom

I ran into a question earlier about how to invest if you have limited income, where do you start.
I am not a professional financial advisor so please do your own due diligence.
To answer the question, I figured a picture could be worth a thousand words.

one possible path to financial freedom
one possible path to financial freedom

The shorter version would be “get a financial advisor” or read a lot since it’s sometimes (maybe most of the time) not as simple as that. Each block has experts in them (including the block on “believe you can be rich”) and whole books (and even libraries) on these topics but start by believing and always keep learning.

Wealth (being rich) is a matter of definition so although I may not be an authority in what most people define as being rich, I do consider myself happy and I believe I will definitely get to my goals so someone might find this useful. This is from personal experience, articles and books I have come across in the subject.

If you would like to learn about other possible paths, you might want to pick up IMHO one of the most comprehensive books on the topic – the Ten Roads to Riches by Ken Fisher

[amazon asin=0470481552&template=iframe image]